A Trip With The Village.

As I'm sure you've noticed, I'm quite behind with my posts of what I've been up to in Australia. I apologize for this but I've been working hard on university assignments and have neglected my blog. I have managed to get out and do a couple things though. Here's a summary of my day trip to the beautiful wine country known as McLaren Vale.

Day tours to visit local wineries is very popular around South Australia and although the most popular destination is Barossa Valley, I chose the wallet-friendly option of going to McLaren Vale with that the Village (the townhouse complex I've been living in during my time in Adelaide) had arranged.

We set off on a Sunday morning at the decent time of 9:30am towards the wineries, which was only about an hour drive - only just past the outskirts of the city of Adelaide. We stopped at our first winery, called Shingleback where I tried 2 Chardonnay, 1 Pinot Gris, a rose wine, and a red chocolate wine. Although I'm not too much of a wine drinker, I did enjoy all the wines at the first stop. My favourite was the chocolate wine and I bought a bottle, which I later drank with my dinners.

Drinking wine at Shingleback.

New friends.

Our second stop was the McLaren Vale Information Center which had a nice local art gallery, a beautiful patio, and lots of souvenirs. I particularly liked the gallery since the exhibit displayed plenty of interesting and creative works, such as broomstick people, roses made out of plastic bags, and rock portraits.

Plastic Bag Roses.

Rock Portrait.

Creative painting.

View from the back patio.

Shortly we stopped for a picnic lunch in a small park in the small town of McLaren Vale where I threw a Frisbee around for a while with a couple of girls I met on the tour. Lunch was simple, but delicious and we soon headed off to the final two wineries.

The second winery was called Paxton where I tried a white, rose, red, and desert wine. Although I wasn't a fan of any of these wines, the scenery at the winery was beautiful. We even saw kangaroos as we were driving! They jumped right in front of the bus and through the vineyard.

Paxton Wine Barrel.

Near the entrance.

View from the back patio.

The entire tour group!

The last winery was called Amery Vineyards and was a small family owned winery that had been passed down for several generations. I tried two white wines, a port, and my personal favourite: a moscato. This was a sweet bubbly white wine that I found I loved and once again bought a bottle for myself that I later shared with Kaitlyn when she came to visit me in Adelaide.

View of Amery Vineyards and the surrounding hillside.

At Amery Vineyards.

It was nice to spend a day away from worrying about assignments for university and I really enjoyed seeing some more of the scenery outside of the city of Adelaide. More adventures in Adelaide to come!

The day's spoils!